WMU-affiliates are big tech funding winners

June 25, 2005

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University researchers and scientists
at companies supported by the University were among the biggest
winners June 15 when the latest round of Michigan Technology
Tri-Corridor funding was announced.

As previously announced by the University, the College of
Aviation nabbed the largest single award announced that day--$2.79
million for the Center of Excellence for Simulation Research.
In addition, two local life sciences startups that are among
the companies supported by WMU's Biosciences Research and Commercialization
Center received significant awards. And the principals at another
BRCC-supported firm are involved in research that also received
funding. In all, WMU-affiliated researchers and the projects
in which they are involved secured more than $5.6 million in
support from the Technology Tri Corridor.

"The University and the community are making terrific
strides in the life sciences," says Dr. Jack Luderer, executive
director of the BRCC. "While we can't take direct credit
for the work being done by local startups, the state's decision
to finance their research and the careful peer-review process
involved certainly validate our support for those companies and
scientists and our investment in them."

More than $27 million in Michigan Technology Tri-Corridor
funding announced this month is going to 24 different research
efforts around the state, but mostly in Kalamazoo, Wayne and
Washtenaw counties. The $5.6 million awarded to scientists affiliated
with WMU amounts to more than 20 percent of the total.

Local companies securing funding include:

NephRx Corp., a BRCC-funded entity in the Southwest Michigan
Innovation Center, which received $665,110;

ProNai Therapeutics Inc., another BRCC-funded entity in the
innovation center, which received $1,735,520; and

zuSyn Inc., a Kalamazoo startup, won $403,330 for a project
that is a collaboration with Kalexsyn, another firm that has
BRCC support.